Ann Dvorak

A look at the forces that shaped Pre-Code Hollywood and brought about the strict enforcement of the Hays Code in 1934.

Stephen H. Bogart narrates the rise to fame of his father, Humphrey Bogart through the use of film clips, written material and interviews of friends and co-workers.

A young woman from Kansas moves to New York City, becomes highly successful at a prestigious modeling agency, and falls in love with a married man.

After a group of convicts escapes from prison, they take refuge in the wilderness. While most of the crew are ruthless sociopaths, Jim Canfield is an innocent man who was jailed under false pretenses. When Canfield and his fellow fugitives reach an isolated farming settlement where the men are all away, it creates tension with the local women. Things get direr when rumors of hidden money arise, and Canfield discovers that the man who framed him is part of the community.

An American nightclub singer in 1940's Singapore becomes a spy for America in an effort to get back at the invading Japanese army. Based on a true story.

During a heated argument with her sister Joan, Gail discovers the shocking news that she is adopted. With the reluctant support of her adoptive parents and baby sister Penny, Gail goes in search of her biological mother and true identity.

Harriet O'Malley tries to solve a murder aboard a train en route to New York.

Marshall Dan Mitchell, who is the law in Abilene, has the job of keeping peace between two groups. For a long time, the town had been divided, with the cattlemen and cowboys having one end of town to themselves, while townspeople occupied the other end. Mitchell liked it this way, it made things easier for him, and kept problems from arising between the two factions. However…

City police surround a building, attempting to capture a suspected murderer. The suspect knows there is no escape but refuses to give in.

Duke Fergus falls for Ann 'Flaxen' Tarry in the Barbary Coast in turn-of-the-century San Francisco. He loses money to crooked gambler Boss Tito Morell, goes home, learns to gamble, and returns. After he makes a fortune, he opens his own place with Flaxen as the entertainer; but the 1906 quake destroys his place.

An American singer stranded in Mexico is hired by a banker to distract a Mexican matador who is making a play for the banker's wife. They hatch a scheme whereby she pretends to be a Spanish countess.

A department store floor walker is persuaded by four husband-seeking salesgirls to pose as their father in a Long Island mansion which they have rented by pooling resources and pretending to be wealthy themselves.

A self-serving journalist uses influential women in late-1800s Paris and denies the one who truly loves him.

In a small town in Kansas, a county attorney in an unhappy marriage falls in love with another woman.

A dancehall girl meets a sailor and they fall in love, but the club’s owner doesn’t want the girl to leave.

The story of an eclectic group of women - tramps, ne'er-do-wells, innocents, fugitives, the once-priviledged, and all down-trodden - either running from or toward something, but who find they must support each other as they hitch-hike their way across Great Depression-era America in search of an increasingly elusive decent life.

Set in an apartment building whose occupants include Arthur Earthleigh, a meek and mild type married to the beautiful-but-domineering Mae; a Bohemian artist, David Galleo and his always-there model, Deborah Tyler; and Olive Jensen, a Greenwich Village type who is always slightly-but-continuously inebriated, and whose motto is "love and let love." She calls on George while his wife is out, and when she passes out during his attempts to get her out before his wife returns, he thinks she is dead and deposits her on Galleo's terrace. Galleo takes advantage of the situation by using it in a blackmail scheme against Arthur, which is shaky, at best, as Olive refuses to stay dead.

In 1920s Chicago, Italian immigrant and notorious thug, Antonio 'Tony' Camonte, aka Scarface, shoots his way to the top of the mobs while trying to protect his sister from the criminal life.

Society matron Emily Kilbourne has a habit of hiring ex-cons and hobos as servants. Her latest find is a handsome tramp who shows up at her doorstep and ends up in a chauffeur's uniform. He also catches the eye of Geraldine.

James “Brick” Davis, a struggling attorney, owes his education to a mobster, but always has refused to get involved with the underworld. When a friend of his is gunned down by a notorious criminal, Brick decides to abandon the exercise of the law and join the Department of Justice to capture the murderer.

A socialite masquerades as a notorious femme fatale to win back her straying husband during a costume party aboard a doomed dirigible.

Although Vivian Revere is seemingly the most successful of a trio of reunited schoolmates, she throws it away by descending into a life of debauchery and drugs.

A well-cloistered and protected-against-reality group of college students get their diplomas in the heart of the Great Depression, and quickly learn that the piece of paper the diploma is written on is worth about eighteen-dollars-a-week in the job-market...for the lucky ones. Some of them fare even worse.

Famous auto racing champion Joe Greer returns to his hometown to compete in a local race, discovering that his younger brother has aspirations to become a racing champion.

Asaph (Charles Ruggles) is a meek, mild-mannered homebody who occasionally shows some backbone to his prudish, overbearing boss, only to be beaten down again. With the encouragement of his secretary Beulah (Ann Dvorak), his old college team-mate Wynn (Eugene Pallette) and some liquor, Asaph regains some of his wild-man soul. Watch out world!

Nan Reynolds encourages her copywriter husband Bill to open his own advertising agency and helps him land his first client. Bill's former girlfriend Patricia Berkeley writes a very successful commercial for the client and heats up their old romance. Wife and girlfriend struggle over Bill.

A gangster takes a doctor and his family hostage.

A fast-talking reporter befriends a young woman and her male companion who are wanted for a policeman's shooting.

A college football star falls for his mousy French tutor.

A scientist carrying the secret to a new high-powered explosive must be safely escorted to Washington and ace pilot Bob "Three Star" Halsey is the best man for the job. Moments before takeoff, crooks take control of the flight and steal the formula. Halsey watches helplessly from the ground as the plane goes down in flames and the thieves esape by parachute. His sweetheart Judy, whose brother was also aboard, races to the crash site, only to be kidnapped by the villains. Halsey and his co-pilot Wings risk everything to save her, calling on their world-class flying skills in the film's terrifying finale.

Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1936.

Olga runs an isolated gas station and restaurant in the stifling hot American desert with her discontented younger sister Myra. When two escaped criminals stop for a bite to eat, Olga is reminded of the past she left behind.

A gossip columnist helps a Broadway ingenue who's beholden to a penthouse gangster.

At Satan & Co., Inc., the devil is upset because too many people are going up to Heaven rather than down to Hades. He gives his assistant, Mr. Burns, the task of getting more people to his domain. In front of a nightclub, Mr. Burns invites a crowd of people to come inside to The Devil's Cabaret to be entertained. After they enjoy songs and dancing, the people go willingly to Hades.

John Thompson is kidnapped by mobsters after quitting his job. Then he is arrested, tried, and sentenced to death for murders they committed. A suspicious detective thinks he is innocent and works to save his life.

Alden "Bill" Carter III sees a beautiful woman, Jerry, dining alone at the Park Savoy in New York, and after a brief flirtation, introduces himself. After he entreats her to be his "mystery woman" to make his girl friend jealous, Jerry agrees to attend a reception that night with him at the Douglas home. This plays right into Jerry's plans, as she is a jewel thief who intends to steal the Douglas jewels with her cohorts, Uncle John and Jeff...

Gopher City Kansas hosts a beauty contest. The winner, Elvira Plunkett, and her mother go to Hollywood. The Chamber of Commerce also provides Elvira with an agent, Gopher City's own Elmer J. Butz. Elmer likes Elvira and the shy Elvira likes him, but Mrs. Plunkett, a formidable woman, has little use for hapless Elmer. On the train west, they meet movie star Larry Mitchell, who takes a shine to Elvira and helps her meet MGM directors once they get to Tinsel Town. Elmer, meanwhile, wants to help Elvira with her career and he also wants to be her man. Movie stardom does come to the Gopher City entourage, but to whom is a surprise. And who will win the lovely Elvira's hand?

A midwest band leader and his lead singer share a love-hate relationship as they try for success in New York.

Unfinished pre-Code era film consisting of three sections with past performers from the stage and the vaudeville circuit, then-present-day performers and up-and-coming performers. Musical excerpts were later used in Broadway to Hollywood (1933), Nertsery Rhymes (1933), and Roast-Beef and Movies (1934). "The Lock Step" was later used in That's Entertainment! III (1994)

This short shows the entrances of the various Hollywood studios, then specifically visits Warner Bros. / First National Studios. We start at the casting office, then see Busby Berkeley and choreographer Bobby Connolly working with chorus girls on production numbers. Then come some candid shots of several contract stars. Finally we see comedian Hugh Herbert filming a scene for an upcoming release, then the various behind the scenes steps that transition the raw film in the camera into the finished product.

Upon the death of his father, who was the tribal chieftain, Joe Thunder Horse returns to the reservation of his youth, only to discover that his people are dying of various diseases and are being systematically cheated of their possessions and basic rights by crooked Indian agents. He heads to Washington in hopes of righting these wrongs, only to experience prejudice and hatred all along the way.

Francois, a cheerful Parisian bohemian, wants more than anything to be a tour guide in his beloved city. While working the streets, Francois meets Madeleine, who works at a circus.

A shrewd millionaire who owns races horses for publicity for his automobile business, claims ownership of a female horse trainer's thoroughbred in order to get the trainer.

Fame goes to a priggish singer's head and almost costs him his girlfriend.

When misfortune hits hard on the Jordan family of Chicago's upper class, Bonnie Jordan, a dazzling and witty girl, finds a job as an aspiring reporter; however, her naive younger brother Rodney takes a twisted path and gets involved with the wrong people.

Husband-and-wife vaudeville stars separate when success goes to his head.

A talented songwriter gets his inspiration for songs from others and not from within himself. He is oblivious that he may harm other people when he uses their stories or their love for himself.

An undercover cop infiltrates a powerful New York based crime syndicate.

A spinster dressmaker falls for a ne'er-do-well.

Gerry, Connie, and Franky are small-town girls seeking wealthy husbands in New York City. But, while Connie and Franky are reckless with their affections — one bedding a married man and the other marrying a scoundrel — Gerry is determined to remain practical. As she mothers her wounded, heartbroken friends, she stalwartly but foolishly resists the advances of the good-hearted and affluent Tony Jardine.

Dr. Socrates gives up his brilliant surgical career at a prominent hospital following the death of his betrothed under his knife. He is now a struggling doctor in a small town that has a gangster's hideout.

A Bishop from Australia comes to Perry to ask him to take a case of a woman wrongly accused of manslaughter 22 years before. The case would involve the wealthy Mr. Brownley and the fact that his alleged granddaughter may be an imposter. With that, the Bishop leaves and is clubbed in his hotel room. Soon after, he leaves on a boat and Perry meets the woman - Ida Gilbert. Perry goes to see Mr. Brownley, but gets nowhere. Later that night, Brownley is to meet Ida, but he is shot by a woman who drops Ida's gun. Ida is arrested for the murder of Mr. Brownley and Perry gets involved.

John Paul Bart is just a pants-presser in a tailor's shop, but he has big ambitions. One night, he borrows the clothes of a wealthy client and bluffs his way into a high society party. After meeting wealthy businessman Abraham Nathan, John Paul quickly rises to the top of Nathan's company. Suffering during The Depression, John Paul helps Nathan save his company with a radical program of cooperative ownership between workers and management. Meanwhile, John Paul makes an enemy of Gustav, who is engaged to Tanya - the daughter of Mr. Huber, owner of the tailor shop. John Paul maintains a friendship with Tanya, provoking jealousy in Gustav. Gustav threatens to reveal John Paul's plain origins to Nathan, and John Paul briefly resigns from Nathan's company. However, John Paul's plan is a success, and Nathan hires him back immediately. Tanya leaves Gustav and ends up with John Paul.

A trio of amateur film makers try to persuade a group of studio executives to exhibit their new movie.

Wilkie and Mitchell, trying to desert their draft into the army, stow away on a ship which takes them into the war zone. While AWOL, the rivals for Mary's affections accidently destroy an ammunition dump.

An all-star revue featuring MGM contract players.

Scheming coed Babs comes between college buddies Eddie and Biff.

Casey and Babe are sisters who work in a department store and each year the store puts on a show. As expected, things are going wrong with every act until Casey comes out to help Babe with her song. They are a hit, but in the final act, Casey again comes out and this time the president sees her act and fires both her and Babe on the spot. Benny is able to book Casey, Babe and Dean into Vaudeville and their act is popular. But before they have their shot at stardom, Dean and Babe leave Casey and the act.

This short showcases composers and lyricists of songs that are now considered standards of American popular music. For several of these song writers, this is their only known appearance in a theatrically released film.

Silent version of the 1884 Helen Hunt Jackson novel originally ran 3 hours but all but 50 minutes of that are now lost.